GARY Neville has told Manchester United to forget about catching Chelsea for now and concentrate on overhauling the other three teams above them in the Premiership table.

Neville, who is still two weeks away from a return to training after being forced to undergo surgery on the groin injury he suffered during the Champions League qualifier against Debrecen two months ago, is distraught that only nine games into the new campaign United are already having to find ways of trying to pull back the champions' massive advantage.

Even though Jose Mourinho's men were held by rock-bottom Everton on Sunday, they remain 10 points clear of United, whose miserable home form continued with a similar stalemate with Tottenham.

The latest setback left the Red Devils outside the Champions League places, below Spurs, Charlton and Wigan.

And, as Sir Alex Ferguson's first-choice squad prepare for Saturday's televised encounter with Middlesbrough, it is that trio Neville thinks United should be focusing on.

"At the moment, we should not be talking about catching the top team, we should be talking about the three teams directly above us," Neville told MUTV.

"Chelsea are in a strong position and after 10 games we didn't want to be talking about having to win our game in hand, and also beat them to get back to four points.

"There is no point talking about it, we have to do it."

Contrast

United have recorded just one win in four home games so far this term, with Manchester City also grabbing a draw, while Blackburn collected all three points.

Should they fail to overcome Chelsea on November 6, Ferguson's side will have gone well over three months without a Premiership home win by the time they entertain Portsmouth on December 3, a stark contrast to their form away from Old Trafford, where they have won four out of five and picked up a point from a testing trip to Liverpool.

"We have dropped a lot of points at home already and it is not good enough," admitted Neville.

"It is difficult to explain because the matches where we have slipped up you would normally expect us to be comfortable.

"It is a worry because you expect to build a championship challenge around your home form.

"But we haven't won the home games and that just makes it doubly difficult for us."

United's cause has not been helped by a succession of major injuries which has robbed them of Neville, Roy Keane and Gabriel Heinze for extended periods while restricting Wes Brown, Louis Saha, Quinton Fortune to just a single appearance between them ahead of tomorrow's Carling Cup tie with League Two Barnet.

Ryan Giggs is the latest big name to be ruled out for a minimum of six weeks with a fractured cheekbone and Neville admits dealing with so many absentees is a problem, even for a club of United's stature.

"We had a terrible run of injuries at the start of last season and it has happened again this year," he said.

"You can't legislate for that. All we can do is try and stay in touch until we get a few players back and hope other teams suffer the same problems later in the season."